(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for processing silver halide photosensitive materials and in particular to an improved processing method which makes it possible to greatly reduce the amount of water used in the processing without impairing the properties of the photosensitive materials to be processed.
(2) Prior Art
Recently, efforts have been directed to reducing the amount of water used in processes included in the method for processing silver halide photosensitive materials, such as the water washing process from, the viewpoint of environmental protection, preservation of the water resources and enhanced economy. For example, one such technique for reducing the amount of washing water is proposed by S. R. Goldwasser in his article entitled "Water Flow Rates in Immersion-Washing of Motion Picture Film", Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, Vol. 64, 248-253 (May, 1955) in which saving of washing water is achieved by employing a multistage washing system including the use of a plurality of washing tanks and countercurrently passing water therethrough. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,324 discloses another method comprising directly transferring bleached and fixed photosensitive materials to stabilization process without substantially passing them through washing process to save washing water. These methods have been adopted in different kinds of automatic processors as an effective means for water saving.
However, there is a limit to the amount of water which can be saved by the foregoing methods. For example, it has gradually become clear that if the amount of a replenisher replenished to the water washing process and/or the stabilization process is reduced to not more than 50 times the volume of liquid carried over by the photosensitive materials from a bath preceding the water washing and/or the stabilization baths per unit area thereof and the processing is continued for a long period of time, various kinds of suspended materials are gradually accumulated in the water washing and/or the stabilization baths and they adhere to the surface of the photosensitive materials to cause contamination thereof which in turn impair the quality of the processed photosensitive materials.
Moreover, the baths for water washing or stabilization in such conditions are quite favorable to the proliferation of bacteria or molds which also adhere to the photosensitive materials and promote the contamination thereof. The proliferation of bacteria or molds further causes rapid clogging of circulating pumps and filters set up on the baths for water washing and stabilization and gives rise to a bad smell.
Accordingly, in order to solve the aforementioned problems, Japanese Patent Un-examined Publication Nos. 61-43741 and 61-43749 propose a method comprising employing a stabilization bath, the surface tension of which is controlled in order to prevent the contamination of the photosensitive materials. However, no practical effects can be expected from this method.
On the other hand, there have been proposed various method which use a variety of antibacterial agents or antifungus agents or chelating agents for preventing the contamination of the photosensitive materials due to the proliferation of bacteria or molds (see Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication Nos. 57-8542, 57-58143 and 58-105145).
However, a sustained inhibitory effect of preventing the proliferation of bacteria or molds cannot be obtained by these methods. If a large amount of such agents is used to achieve such effects for a long period of time, this makes the processed photosensitive materials quite sticky and the materials are liable to adhere to one another or to other materials. Thus, there has not yet been proposed a method for processing silver halide photosensitive materials, which can completely eliminate the foregoing problems.